The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, an image processing method, and a recording medium that color-convert an input image into an output image suitable for a color gamut of a printing apparatus.
Conventionally, when an image captured by an image capturing device such as a digital camera is printed by a printing apparatus, the image is color-converted into an image suitable for a color gamut of the printing apparatus by an image processing apparatus and then printed by the printing apparatus. In this case, in the image processing apparatus, the image is color-converted into the image suitable for the color gamut of the printing apparatus on the assumption that the image is a standard color gamut image having a standard color gamut in a standard color space such as sRGB or the like.
In recent years, an opportunity to capture and view an image using a terminal device has increased with the spread of terminal devices having a camera function, such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal. However, a color gamut of a display unit of the terminal device does not match a standard color gamut in many cases, and in the case where an image printed by a printing apparatus and an image displayed by the display unit of the terminal device are compared, there is a problem in that colors differ between the images, and a sense of incongruity is caused.
For example, even when user A and user B view the same image on a social network system (SNS) using their terminal devices, colors of the image viewed by user A and colors of the image viewed by user B differ if the terminal devices used by the users differ.
Thus, conventionally, when an image is printed, the image is printed to be an image with standard colors (an image with the emphasis on skin colors, memory colors or grayscale) that is preferred for anyone, but the printed image differs in colors from an image displayed on a display unit of a terminal device of each user.
Prior art literatures relating to the present invention include Patent Literature 1 (JP 2007-324989 A) and Patent Literature 2 (JP 2004-135125 A).
The object of Patent Literature 1 is to satisfactorily reproduce colors in an input-estimated color gamut even when the input-estimated color gamut differs depending on the type of input data source, and ensure color reproduction even with respect to colors other than those in the input-estimated color gamut.
In Patent Literature 1, the input-estimated color gamut is determined in accordance with the type of original (for example, a reflection-type original/positive film/negative film read by a scanner), and a method of compression to a printer color gamut is changed between colors inside the input-estimated color gamut and colors on the outside thereof.
However, in Patent Literature 1, the input-estimated color gamut is switched depending on the type of original read by the scanner and, when a color image is input, the color gamut difference from the device which inputs the color image is not absorbed.
The object of Patent Literature 2 is to perform color conversion suitable for respective images.
In Patent Literature 2, a color conversion table to be used is changed depending on the color tone of an image (monochrome or color).
However, in Patent Literature 2, determination whether an input image is a monochrome image or a color image is merely performed, and it is not possible to change the color conversion depending on a color gamut of a color image.